Do you remember....?

How long do children's books linger in the memories of their readers? Well, clearly there are no statistics on that, but it's still a good question. As librarians, parents, or teachers we often wonder whether the books we provide for our children really do influence them. A recent series of essays on books read by thousands of girls during the 1960s and 1970s sheds some light on how many women still recall Harriet the Spy, Judy Blume's Margaret, and other heroines of the time. Whether we imitated the characters in books or turned our backs on them, it seems that many of us paid attention and remember them. Perhaps we should take a look at today's books and try to figure out what kids will remember from them in 2030 or 2040.